The political strategist who handled John McCain's campaign is saying that the GOP risks becoming a 'sectarian' party. It's refreshing that someone within the GOP is demonstrating that there is still some intelligent life in the party, not that I foresee the lunatic base of the party going along with such smart advice. With the changing views of the younger generations of voters towards gays, time is not on the side of the Kool-Aid drinkers who in a matter of time will simply die off in sufficient numbers to allow pro-gay measures to pass. Meanwhile, the GOP will have turned itself into a religious dominated relic of a political party. How the small rational element in the party rescues the GOP from the Christianist is a huge question since much f the party grass roots consists of church directed extremists who live in an alternate reality from the rest of us. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post on Steve Schmidt's heretical views on gay marriage (Note: the article quotes the Traditional Values Coalition which is an identified anti-gay hate group):

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Adding a prominent Republican voice to the ranks of those supporting same-sex marriage, the man who managed Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign yesterday warned members of his party that continued opposition on the issue could turn the GOP into a "sectarian" party. Steve Schmidt, a California political strategist, has long held more moderate views on social issues than do many top GOP officials. Yesterday, he used a speech in front of the gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans to urge the party to shift its views on same-sex marriage. Otherwise, he said, it will continue losing voters who are younger than 35 or who live outside the South. "For the party to be seen as anti-gay, that is injurious to its candidates in places like California and Washington," Schmidt said.

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Pushing the party to reconsider the issue are a handful of GOP figures, including Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of last November's Republican standard-bearer. She will speak tonight at a dinner for the Log Cabin Republicans, whose name reflects the birthplace of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. McCain and her mother, Cindy, attended a Log Cabin reception last night at the home of former congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) who was one of the few openly gay members of Congress during his tenure.

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Other Republicans disagreed strongly with Schmidt, noting that an initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman passed in California, a state President Obama easily won. "We've seen over and over people come out and support marriage between a man and woman," said Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, a District-based conservative activist group. "It absolutely doesn't threaten the election of Republicans. The campaign [on gay marriage in California] won the support of Republicans, independents and some Democrats."

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Schmidt added that his lesbian sister's relationship with another woman helped change his views on the matter. . . . People under 40, they don't care," said Martin Sokoll, a trustee of the group [Log Cabin Republicans] who lives in Iowa. "It's absolutely age-related. It's going to change as those folks who are older die off."

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As I have said before, it would be nice if the mainstream media would challenge statements like those of Ms. Lafferty who makes a comfortable living peddling hatred.

I have been gathering my thoughts on the release of the so-called torture memos prepared at the behest of the Chimperator and Emperor Palpatine Cheney (who I suspect was the real moving force for torture) since the memos confirmed what some of us long suspected: the United States at the direction of Bush and Cheney clearly engaged in what constitutes torture. I applaud Obama for releasing the memos released to date. However, I strongly disagree with the decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who engaged in torture while "following orders." That defense was repudiated at Nuremberg and it is shocking that Obama wants to give American torturers a pass that was not given to those of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Copies of the memos are available here via the ACLU which has noted:

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During the Bush administration, however, the OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] became a facilitator for illegal government conduct, issuing dozens of memos meant to permit gross violations of domestic and international law. Some of these memos have become public through leaks to the media and through the ACLU's litigation under the Freedom of Information Act. But most of them are still secret.

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That's the reality: the supposed leader of the free world knowingly ordered the very type of techniques used by the Nazi regime, the Red Chinese, the Soviet gulags, and other hideous regimes. What is most distressing is the fact that most average citizens seem to care little or nothing about the revelations. Perhaps this reaction - or lack of a vehement reaction - it is because for many it is not a surprise at all. People knew in their hearts the misdeeds done in their name. Or perhaps many simply do not want to fully admit to themselves just how lawless and reprehensible Bush, Cheney and their minions were in fact. The ACLU had this to say:

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"The documents released today provide further confirmation that lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel purposefully distorted the law to support the Bush administration's torture program," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU. "Now that the memos have been made public, high-ranking officials in the Bush administration must be held accountable for authorizing torture. We are hopeful that by releasing these memos, the Obama administration has turned the page on an era in which the Justice Department became complicit in some of the most egregious crimes."

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Like it or not, to regain credibility in the world, those who ordered torture need to be prosecuted and punished. No one is above the law - not even the President or Vice President. Here are some reflections from Andrew Sullivan with whom I agree:

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[W]hat is far more important and far graver is the decision after the 2004 re-election, after the original period of panic, to set up a torture program, replete with every professional and bureaucratic nicety. This is why the Bradbury memo of 2005 is so much more chilling in its way. This was long after AbuGhraib, long after the initial panic, and a pre-meditated attempt to turn the US into a secret torture state. These legal memos construct a form of torture, through various classic torture techniques, used separately and in combination, that were to be used systematically, by a professional torture team along the lines proposed by Charles Krauthammer, and buttressed by a small army of lawyers, psychologists and doctors - especially doctors - to turn the US into a torture state. The legal limits were designed to maximize the torture while minimizing excessive physical damage, to take prisoners to the edge while making sure, by the use of medical professionals, that they did not die and would not have permanent injuries.

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If you want to know how democracies die, read these memos. Read how gifted professionals in the CIA were able to convince experienced doctors that what they were doing was ethical and legal. Read how American psychologists were able to find justifications for the imposition of psychological torture, and were able to analyze its effects without ever stopping and asking: what on earth are we doing?

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The question of prosecution remains. It's a painful decision. My view is that those who pay the legal price should be, first and foremost, those who authorized this at the highest levels. My view is also that it is a travesty that the AbuGhraib reservists were prosecuted, and yet far, far more culpable people are claiming it would be too divisive to prosecute them. My view is that no one is above the law, and that when a society based on law prosecutes the powerless and excuses the powerful, it is corroding its own soul.

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My final comment is that it is reveal that those who have most consistently supported and cheered on the lawlessness of Bush and Cheney are the Christian Right elements in this country. Proving yet again that they are neither Christian nor right in their conduct.

As the Republican Party at the national level continues to demonstrate that it has been co-opted by the lunatic far right base of the Party, Bob McDonnell, the presumptive GOP candidate for Governor of Virginia is busy trying to market himself as a moderate pro-business candidate. I have posted both on this blog and on Bilerico-DC my views on McDonnell's disingenuous campaign and now Common Sense Virginia has a website that is highlighting the true Bob McDonnell who has the nickname "Taliban Bob" due his embrace of the extreme elements of the Christian Right here in Virginia who are anti-abortion in all cases, anti-gay rights of any kind, and want extreme Christianist religious views intertwined with the civil laws. The website - which is advertising on a number of political blogs - can be found here. Here are some highlights on the real Bob McDonnell:

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A Regent University law grad with strong ties to the religious right and seven terms representing Virginia Beach in the House of Delegates, McDonnell has been making headlines here for years. He could probably do without some of the controversial ones say, those involving his legal work before state regulatory agencies, or his role in the ouster of a Newport News judge a couple years back.” [Editorial, The Virginian-Pilot, 10/19/2005]

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The Virginian Pilot said that “To be sure, parts of [McDonnell's] agenda, if ever fully realized, would bring division and harm to the commonwealth. As an advocate for the Christian Right, McDonnell presumably would invite a society in which it is a crime for a woman to terminate her pregnancy, prayer is mandated in public schools, and taxpayer dollars are diverted to parochial education. Only with caution can courts and common sense be counted on to limit this agenda's realization.“ [The Virginian-Pilot, 10/24/1999]

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In an article discussion suspect donations to McDonnell's Attorney General campaign, a Washington Post editorial noted “Democrats suspect, without offering any proof, that the RSLC is concealing huge "pass-through" donations from Pat Robertson, an ally and political mentor of Mr. McDonnell. Mr. McDonnell is a graduate of the law school of Regent University, a Christian institution founded by Mr. Robertson. The televangelist makes no secret of his support, having given $36,000 directly to the McDonnell campaign, its second-largest donation from an individual. . . . [Editorial, Washington Post, 10/21/2005]

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McDonnell has issued plenty of bad legal decisions as attorney general. The Regent University law school graduate too often caters to the far right of the GOP over the good of the commonwealth and the law.” [Editorial, The Roanoke Times, 3/25/2008]

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I encourage readers to fully explore this website because, if you do, it will be perfectly clear that Bob McDonnell is the last person we need as Governor of Virginia. McDonnell is hoping that people will have forgotten his past - we need to do all that we can to remind them of who McDonnell really is and who will dictate policy if her were to be elected. Do we really want Pat Robertson and Daddy Dobson's affiliate, The Family Foundation, dictating the future of Virginia?

Every once in a while someone or something comes along and smacks you in the face in terms of revealing just how wrong it is to judge people based on their looks or a stereotype in which they might be conveniently pigeon holed. Suasn Boyle, the "Britain's Got Talent" phenomenon is a case in point. I heard about her appearance numerous times while traveling during the week to the court hearing in Martinsville - MichelangeloSignorile discussed it on his radio show - but I had not had an opportunity to view the video at the time. YouTube has blocked embedding of the video, but you can watch it here if you have not done so. A brief clip from the Daily Beast is set out below.

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I will admit that watching her perform nearly brought tears to my eyes. Her confidence and amazing voice stunned the crowd and it was wonderful to see the all too condescending and smug Simon Crowell dumb struck and left in amazement. I sincerely hope Susan gets her dream of performing before Queen Elizabeth II.

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Here's highlights from what Piers Morgan, one of the show's judges had to say on the Daily Beast about the story and Susan's amazing performance:

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Susan bounced on stage, full of tartan bonhomie, and the reaction was instantaneous: 3,000 people laughed their heads off, me and my co-judges, Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden, stifled a chuckle, and the clear message from our collective expressions was "This is going to be a car-crash performance of epic proportions." . . . . And then Susan Boyle began to sing. And within just a few seconds, the joke was suddenly on us.

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Because Susan is not just a good singer, she’s a fantastic singer. Someone whose stunning range, tone, and delivery is worthy of comparison to anyone—the great Elaine Paige included. Her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables was almost perfect. Yet she has never sung professionally; in fact, she has barely sung out of her tiny village in a remote part of Scotland.

Yesterday was the National Day of Silence - a program started in the 1990s at the University of Virginia - and with the recent deaths of teens the mainstream media seems to be waking up if ever so slightly to the fact that homophobia is killing our nation's youth. Unfortunately, they stories do not properly lay the blame for these deaths squarely at the feet of the professional Christians and anti-gay hate mongers of the Christian Right who do all in their power to create an atmosphere where gays are denigrated, youth are bullied to the point of suicide, and it's fine to kill LGBT citizens for being different. As I have noted often, I simply cannot understand the twisted mindset where tormenting people and disseminating lies and hatred are deemed to be the cats of Christians. Is money and perceived political power - not to mention feeling self-satisfied and superior - that important to people like Rick Warren, Tony Perkins, and James Dobson that people must die? Disturbingly, Barack Obama has appointed individuals representing this foul set of Christianists to his advisory counsel on faith based issues rather than exile them to the political wilderness where they rightly belong. First the Huffington Post takes a look at the toxic phenomenon. Here are some highlights:

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Today, across the country schools will participate in a National Day of Silence to protest the homophobic bullying that is killing teenagers and honor those whose lives have been taken by the barbaric hands of hatred. In less than two years there have been four brutal teenage deaths resulting from homophobic bullying. Just last week Carl Walker, an eleven year old in Springfield, Massachusetts , who never actually identified as gay, hung himself with an extension cord from the 3rd floor landing of his home. This was after his mother repeatedly implored his school to do something about the homophobic bullying he experienced.

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Last summer a transgendered teenager, Angie Zapata, was brutally murdered in Greeley, Colorado. Last February Eric Mohat, a 17-year old student from Ohio, who also never identified as gay, committed suicide after being repeatedly harassed with anti-gay epithets such as "fag" and "homo." Also, last year, Lawrence King, a fifteen year old who identified as gay, was shot in the head twice in his English class. He died a few days later. His heart was donated the day after Valentine's day.

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Change has been a pervasive concept in our country over the past two years. Barack Obama's presidential election, along with the dissolution of our economic institutions, are catalysts for significant change. We need to start applying this same principal of change to the institution of hatred entrenched in our culture. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, and social psychology pioneer Albert Bandura have both shown that aggression and hatred are learned behaviors. If a child is taught to hate and fear diversity, then the next place he or she expresses that hate is at school. If hate is learned, then it lies on the shoulders of our schools, church officials, parents, teachers, and communities to teach our young kids acceptance before they continue hurting each other, and before they become adults who will likely pass their hatred to the next generation.

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[P]eople who choose to hate in the name of "their" God are simply immersed in a human experience that is built on irrationality, fear, hatred and ego; . . . I cannot say when, but I have faith that one day those who attack in the name of "their" god will discover that they are also attacking themselves.

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Judith Warner in the New York Times also chimes in on this issue and looks at the releated issue of how perverted ideas of masculinity can be in American society where those who do not fit one a particualr narrow range of stereotypes get treated with contempt. Personally, I have always felt that males who feel threatened by gays are the ones who have issues, not the gays. Here are some highlights from Warner's column:

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I’m only partly talking about homophobia, which, though virulent, cruel and occasionally fatal among teenagers, is not the whole story behind the fact that words like “fag” and “gay” are now among the most potent and feared weapons in the school bully’s arsenal. . . . . It’s really about showing any perceived weakness or femininity – by being emotional, seeming incompetent, caring too much about clothing, liking to dance or even having an interest in literature.

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“To call someone gay or fag is like the lowest thing you can call someone. Because that’s like saying that you’re nothing,” is how one teenage boy put it to C.J. Pascoe, a sociologist at Colorado College, in an interview for her 2007 book, “Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School.”

*The message to the most vulnerable, to the victims of today’s poisonous boy culture, is being heard loud and clear: to be something other than the narrowest, stupidest sort of guy’s guy, is to be unworthy of even being alive. . . . . Boys were showing each other they were tough. They were afraid to do anything that might be called girlie,” she [Barbara J. Risman, a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago] told me this week. “It was just like what I would have found if I had done this research 50 years ago. They were frozen in time.”

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Malina Saval, who spent two years observing and interviewing teenage boys and their parents for her new book “The Secret Lives of Boys,” found that parents played a key role in reinforcing the basest sort of gender stereotypes, at least where boys were concerned. “There were a few parents who were sort of alarmist about whether or not their children were going to be gay because of their music choices, the clothes they wore,” she said. Generally, she said, “there was a kind of low-level paranoia if these high-school-age boys weren’t yet seriously involved with a girl.”

As I indicated a couple days ago, I was in Martinsville, Virginia, in rural south central Virginia to argue a case involving a state employee discharged by the Virginia Museum of Natural History for being gay. I was aided on the legal research by the Washington, D.C., office of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Project of the ACLU and having made the arguments we are awaiting a decision within the next week and a half or so. Needless to say I will be keeping my fingers crossed.

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Martinsville is a physically beautiful place located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Progressive, however, it is not and it truly makes Norfolk look like a bright shining cosmopolitan center of liberalism (which it is not) in comparison. As the case of the "Martinsville Seven" from circa 1950 reveals, Martinsville has dark elements in its past. Yet, by the same token, it's amazing what even the main stream media was like at that point in time. A Time magazine article from the time period described those who were supporting the efforts to clear the names of seven blacks accused and condemned for raping a white woman as "communists:"

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The well-greased Communist apparatus was making propaganda hay out of the Martinsville Seven—with suitable adjustments in the facts.

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It was a pretty scary world back then and it's encouraging that the nation and Martinsville have progressed from that period of time. It is ironic, however, that it is to that time period that the Christianists seem Hell bent on trying to return the country to.

Recently, I have written tow posts about two suicides of two boys bullied for being perceived as gay and I labeled their deaths as more fruits of Christianist anti-gay hate since the non-stop anti-gay mantra of these self-styled Christians creates the atmosphere where it is fine to bully and torment gays and those who are perceived to be gay. For this, the author of one comment - which I did not publish - alleged that I "hated Christianity" and that I had "twisted" the facts simply so that I could malign Christians.

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For the record, I am hardly against Christianity and do not "hate" it - the boyfriend and I went to church on Easter at my ELCA parish. Thus, I consider myself a Christian in the good sense. What I do oppose is the toxic, poisonous version of Christianity marketed by James Dobson, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Tony Perkins, Fred Phelps, Concerned Women for America, etal, which is infused with hatred towards gays - and non-Christians, immigrants and many others. It is a perverted form of Christianity which is defined by who its adherents hate and which shows absolutely no love of neighbor as commanded by Christ.

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Driving back from Martinsville yesterday I listened to MichelangeloSignorile's four hour show during which he played a video being promoted by the Illinois Family Institute - an identified "Christian" anti-gay hate group by the way - attacking gays and the National Day of Silence which takes place today. The video is vile and is a perfect example of who anti-gay hatred is generated and individuals are emboldened to bully and harass LGBT citizens. Here's how these "loving Christians" describe their hate propaganda:

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The "Day of Silence", sponsored by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) will take place Friday, April 17th in schools across the nation. Participating teachers and students are told to remain silent during class time to protest discrimination and bullying felt by students who believe they are gay and/or transgender. The 6 minute video, made by a Bible believing church here in Illinois, exposes how our children are being indoctrinated, held captive and forced to accept an unproven and dangerous ideology while Biblical Truth is undermined.

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The video talks of gays as being diseased and basically a threat to Christians. Interestingly enough, the Illinois Family Institute is attacking Warren Throckmorton for his moderation of his anti-gay activities and his effort to counter the Day of Silence with a "golden rule" approach that treats gays with dignity. Here's the IFI's commentary on Throckmorton:

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A national coalition of pro-family organizations is urging parents to call their children out of school on the Day of Silence (DOS), an annual event sponsored by the partisan political action group, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). . . . Grove City College professor, Dr. Warren Throckmorton, on the other hand, is recommending that students join his "Golden Rule Pledge" effort which urges them to remain in school and pass out cards on which the Golden rule is printed. . . . Dr. Throckmorton misapplies the "Golden Rule" in his efforts to promote heretical views of the nature and morality of homosexuality.

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It is a bizarre circumstance when Throckmorton - historically no friend to LGBT Americans - is being attacked for supporting homosexuality. But then, the folks at IFI live in a very warped and perverted mindset.

It is a sad state of affairs that the Obama administration and the U. S. State Department appear to be utterly indifferent to the unrestrained murder of gay Iraqis that are taking place at present. Both seem unwilling to demand that their Iraqi puppets take action and stop the travesty. Thus, it is good to see that Amnesty International is calling attention to the blatant murders that are taking place and going after Iraqi president Nourial-Maliki personally for allowing the bloodshed. Candidly, I find Maliki and his government to be pretty worthless and content to suck off the tit of the American taxpayers. It is a damning situation when gays had better protections under Saddam Hussein than they do now. Here are highlights from Pink News:

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Amnesty International has taken the unusual step of writing to Iraqi president Nourial-Maliki to demand "urgent and concerted action" by his government to stop the killings of gay men in the country. Although confusion has led to conflicted reports over the numbers being killed, Amnesty believes the murders have been carried out by militiamen and relatives of the victims, after being incited by religious leaders.

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According to the Independent, Amnesty's letter to Mr Al-Maliki accuses his government of failing to condemn the killings publicly or to investigate the murders. It also suggested that evidence shows police are encouraged to target gay men and calls for officers who incite homophobic attacks to be "held to account and either prosecuted or disciplined and removed from office".

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Amnesty International is calling on Nourial-Maliki to condemn all attacks on members of the gay community, publicly, unreservedly and in the strongest terms possible." Writing for PinkNews.co.uk in February, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell claimed: "Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, homophobia and the terrorisation of LGBT people has got much worse.

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"The western invasion of Iraq in 2003 ended the tyrannical Baathist dictatorship. But it also destroyed a secular state, created chaos and lawlessness and allowed the flourishing of religious fundamentalism. The result has been an Islamist-inspired homophobic terror campaign against LGBT Iraqis." "Queers are being shot dead in their homes, streets and workplaces," he added.

*"Even suspected gay children are being murdered. They killers claim to be doing these assassinations at the behest of the 'democratic' Iraqi government, in order to eradicate what they see as immoral, un-Islamic behaviour."

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Once again, religious fundamentalism of all stripes and cowardly politicians are proving to be a main force of evil in the world.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I will be traveling to Martinsville, Virginia - hardly the most enlightened part of the Commonwealth - tomorrow for a court hearing on Thursday in the matter of Moore v. Virginia Museum of Natural History. As the Washington Blade has reported several times, my client maintains he was fired by the Museum - a state agency - because of his sexual orientation. A decision by the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management found that my client's sexual orientation was improperly considered. The case involves both Executive Order 1 (2006) signed by Virginia Governor and DNC Chair Tim Kaine as well as constitutional issues of equal protection, due process and freedom from religious based discrimination.

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Martinsville (population: 15,416) is about a 4 to 5 hour drive more or less along the southern edge of the state from Norfolk. The trip takes you through some of the least progressive parts of the state and radio, cell phone and Internet reception is spotty. As a result, posting will be irregular at best. Fortunately, the boyfriend is letting me take his car with satelitte radio in lieu of my Jeep so that I do not die of boredom on the trip.

I frequently post about the outrageously untrue statements disseminated by professional Christian, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council - an organization that definitely believes that the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness is to be ignored at will. Thus, it was most enjoyable to see Mel White of Soulforce lay into Perkins for his ad hominid attacks on gays and the knowingly false statements that seem to emanate from Perkins' mouth whenever his lips are moving. Like White, I have monitored FRC and Perkins for years and both the organization as a whole and Perkins individually care nothing about repeating shockingly false lies over and over again. White properly follows the approach of telling the truth about Christianists as long as they continue to lie about LGBT Americans. Here are some highlights of the exchange via Toweleroad and CNN:

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COOPER: I've got to give Mel the last word, because I gave Tony the first word -- Mel.

*WHITE:It's really important for people to realize that Tony and Dobson and these others have been misleading the public for so many years about sexual orientation and gender identity. It's so important to see through their half-truths and their hyperboles. It's really important to realize the damage they're doing by not saying that God created us gay. God loves us gay. And we should have all the rights that the American people provide all of us. So Tony sounds good like Rick, but they're really saying things that are horrible and destructive.

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PERKINS: Well, I would just say it's not true. The Bible speaks for itself.

*WHITE: The Bible says nothing about homosexuality, Tony.

*PERKINS: You know that very well that it does. But Mel, nonetheless, Mel, I love you. Appreciate you as a human being.

*WHITE: Don't say that because as soon as you say about gay people lead to destruction, the break-up of families... You continue this, "We love you, but we hate you. We love you, but...We don't want you to have rights. Tony, I've read your material. I've monitored you for ten years. You've got to get off this anti-gay stuff, because they're leaving the churches, because they've seen through your fundamentalist stuff."

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Personally, I do not understand how someone can lie as callously as Perkins does on literally a daily basis with no apparent concern for the harm he does to others. I guess his focus is all on himself and the comfortable life he maintains spreading lies and shaking down money from the ignorant and gullible. In my view, Perkins is disgusting.

I am a bit surprised to learn of the anti-gay hate crime that occurred on the University of Virginia grounds on April 4, 2009, especially since the boyfriend and I were in Charlottesville on Sunday the 5th. Charlottesville is among the most liberal cities in Virginia - due largely to the influence of the University and the many New Yorkers and Hollywood set that own in surrounding Albemarle County. On the other hand, the University does have its share of far right Southern students and there remain less than savory elements within parts of the city. While I do not recall the exact date, within the last year a patron leaving 216, a gay after hours club in downtown Charlottesville was beaten while leaving the club. At the time the attack seemed motivated by anti-gay animus. Nonetheless, it is upsetting to hear of this type of incident at the University. Here are some highlights from the Daily Progress:

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A University of Virginia student and a visiting friend were violently assaulted April 4 in what UVa officials are describing as a “bias-motivated crime.” The student and his guest were attacked without warning at around 3 a.m. by five males who uttered several homophobic slurs, according to a statement sent out late Friday to the university community by UVa Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Allen W. Groves.

*“Based upon the facts as we currently know them, we believe this to be a bias-motivated crime, in that the perceived sexual orientation of the two victims appears to have motivated the assault,” Groves said in the statement. . . . No arrests have yet been made in the incident, though the UVa Police Department is investigating, said Lt. Melissa Fielding. “It’s an open, active investigation,” she said. “We would encourage anyone with information about this incident to call Crime Stoppers or University Police.”

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As Toweleroad correctly notes, the hate crimes statute in Virginia affords no protection for violent crimes based on the victim's sexual orientation thanks to the efforts of Daddy Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation, and the GOP controlled House of Delegates. With numerous anti-gay judges still on the bench (Norfolk certainly has its share), the overall atmosphere even in more progressive parts of Virginia is often less than safe for LGBT citizens. As I recently stated at a hearing at Hampton City hall concerning the proposed addition of non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation to the City's human resource policy, my advice to those considering moving to Virginia from more progressive states is to not move to Virginia. The University of Virginia's Honor Code, however, would provide for the addition penalty of expulsion of any students perpetrating such a crime on top of the normal crimianl penalties for violent assault.

I have not said too much about the continuing swirl of protests from the pedophile priest loving set at Notre Dame University that has its panties in a knot over Barack Obama's selection as the commencement speaker this year. These folk who worry only about children before they are born continue to brown nose and ass kiss the members of the Church hierarchy who deliberately covered up sexual abuse of minors and callously reassigned predator priests to new parishes. Equally bad, these folks had no apparent problem with welcoming the Chimperator to the campus even though the Catholic Church in theory opposes the death penalty which Bush authorized more than any other governor. At times I truly wonder how these Catholics got their heads so far up their own backsides that they cannot see the hypocrisy in their double standards. What is shocking about the Chimperator - as is brought out in a New York Review of Books column - is just how little he carried about those he was sending to to be executed. Or maybe it's not shocking coming from the man who took the nation to war in Iraq based on lies and who has responsibility on his hands for the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqi civilians. Here are some column highlights:

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In the twenty-first century, a state governor represents the last vestige of the "divine right of kings," because he has absolute power over life and death—especially when such power is entrusted to politicians motivated more by expediency than by conscience. . . . All governors claim to agonize over death penalty decisions. All claim to scrutinize every possible angle of the cases of condemned persons facing execution under their watch.

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George W. Bush during his six years as governor of Texas presided over 152 executions, more than any other governor in the recent history of the United States. Bush has said: "I take every death penalty case seriously and review each case carefully.... Each case is major because each case is life or death."

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He might have succeeded in bequeathing to history this image of himself as a scrupulously fair-minded governor if the journalist Alan Berlow had not used the Public Information Act to gain access to fifty-seven confidential death penalty memos that Bush's legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, whom President Bush has recently nominated to be attorney general of the United States, presented to him, usually on the very day of execution. The reports Gonzales presented could not be more cursory.*

Take, for example, the case of Terry Washington,a mentally retarded man of thirty-three with the communication skills of a seven-year-old. Washington's plea for clemency came before Governor Bush on the morning of May 6, 1997. After a thirty-minute briefing by Gonzales, Bush checked "Deny"—just as he had denied twenty-nine other pleas for clemency in his first twenty-eight months as governor.

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But Washington's plea for clemency raised substantial issues, which called for thoughtful, fair-minded consideration, not the least of which was the fact that Washington's mental handicap had never been presented to the jury that condemned him to death. Gonzales's legal summary, however, omitted any mention of Washington's mental limitations as well as the fact that his trial lawyer had failed to enlist the help of a mental health expert to testify on his client's behalf.

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When Berlow asked Gonzales directly whether Bush ever read the clemency petitions, he replied that he did so "from time to time." Instead, Bush seems to have relied on Gonzales's summaries, and they clearly indicate that Gonzales continuously sided with the prosecutors.

*

Berlow writes, "The fact that courts have rejected a defendant's legal claims arguably places an added burden on a governor—as the conscience of the state...—to conduct a scrupulous review." How, then, could Bush's legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales, systematically neglect to provide mitigating evidence or "new facts" that the petitioners' juries had never heard? For the man who said that the nature of the war on terror "renders obsolete [the Geneva conventions'] strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners" and called the conventions "quaint" when issuing guidelines for the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo, this is not surprising.

*

There is more, but you get the drift. Bush uncaringly and irresponsibly deprived condemned individuals from having a chance to either prove their innocence or at least mitigating circumstances. Believe me, the more exposure I have to the trial process, the less faith I have in the court system. The outcome of a case is often a crap shoot and is decided more by the prejudices of the judge and/or jury than the true facts of the case.

I have written before about the travesty occurring in Iraq where gays - and those suspected of being gay - are being rounded up and executed with apparently no action from the puppet government to stop the murders. And without a word of protest from the Obama administration I might add which seemingly has turned a blind eye to the problem (one of my many disappointments with Obama regarding LGBT issues). Now Congressman Jared Polis who is in Baghdad has demanded that the U.S Embassy in Baghdad get off its ass and investigate the matter. Prior to his trip, an Iraqi human-rights advocacy group contacted Polis and forwarded him a letter written in jail by a man who said he was beaten into confessing he was a member of the gay-rights group Iraqi-LGBT. The group said the man had been sentenced to death in a court in Karkh, Iraq and executed. (The group and the author's names are omitted for their protection.) Polis also spoke through a translator by phone to a transgender Iraqi man who said he had been arrested, beaten, and raped by Ministry of Interior security forces.

*

I applaud Polis' efforts but even better yet, someone from the White House needs to tell the Iraqi government that strings come attached to the billions of dollars being poured into that country - including an end to human rights abuses against gays. As Polis' letter points out, he was most disturbed by the State Department's unwillingness to take information concerning the flagrant murder of gays from human rights groups seriously. The text of Polis' letter can be found here. The following are some highlights:

*

The United States should not tolerate human rights violations of any kind, especially by a government that Americans spend billions of taxpayer dollars each year supporting. Hopefully my trip and letters to US and Iraqi officials will help bring international attention and investigation to this terrible situation and bring an end to any such offenses.

*

"We will now wait and see whether the Iraqi government is serious about protecting the human rights of all Iraqis and what role our own State Department has to play in helping to protect this minority in Iraq," said Polis. "I am most disturbed by allegations that the Iraqi government itself may be involved in the persecutions. This warrants an immediate investigation from both American and Iraqi governments."

*

Sadly, the Obama administration's indifference to these murders is symptomatic of the fact that all across the USA - certainly here in Virginia - gay lives carry less value than those of straights and gays are routinely abused by the government's policies and in the courts and the legal system where obtaining equal justice is often impossible.

Monday, April 13, 2009

In formation on a previous documentary is resurfcing that looks at the conspiracy within the Roman Catholic Church extending from the Vatican on down to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by priests. Among the issues delved into is the Vatican approvedCrimenSollicitationis, which outlined procedures to be followed by bishops when dealing with allegations of child abuse, homosexuality and bestiality by members of the Catholic clergy and which swore all parties involved to secrecy on pain of excommunication from the Catholic Church. This policy was adopted in 1962 under the papacy of John XXIII who is often considered saintly and progressive. Obviously, CrimenSolliciationis proves that he was far less saintly that often believed.

*

Others besides John XXIII are implicated, however, including the curren Nazi Pope Benedict XVI who has expressed crocodile tears about the sex abuse scandal. In reality, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger reissued CrimenSollicitationes in 2001 and sent to all bishops. Rather than ordering more openness and cooperation with the authorities as demanded by both law enforcers and the victims, Benedict XVI reiterated its policies and ensured that the Code of Silence be applied to all cases of child abuse involving a priest. Cardinal Ratzinger also instructed that all cases should now be referred to his office directly and that he would maintain ‘exclusive competence’ over the handling of allegations. This is the Catholic Church’s policy to this day and Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI.

*

The documentary can be found here and it goes to a long way to underscore the horrific moral bankruptcy that prevails in the highest levels of the Church hierarchy. More background on this issue can be found via the BBC News here. Benedict XVI and his co-conspirators all need to be indicted and tried at a minimum for obstruction of justice.

One of the various search models I use to find stories and ideas to write about turned up an op-ed article in the Watertown Daily Times. Watertown is in the far north of New York State roughly 44 miles from my family's summer home in the Adirondack Mountains about which I have written before. Located on the eastern end of Lake Ontario Watertown is not really close to anything and with a population of less than 27,000, it is a whole different world from New York City located hundreds of miles away to the south south-east. One of the area's claims to fame is that Frank Winfield Woolworth - the founder of the F. W. Woolworth store chain - was born in nearby Rodman, New York, in 1852. Suffice it to say I was surprised to find such a thoughtful and progressive column arguing for gay rights in the Watertown newspaper. Would that more parts of small town America were as enlightened. Here are some highlights:

*

On March 31 Mary Lou Wallner made the conservative case for gay equality at an event hosted by the LGBTA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Association) at SUNY Potsdam. Hers was a message that should be heard far beyond the walls of the SUNY campus — especially by those individuals who feel their faith prevents them from seeing the humanity in everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.

*In February 1997, after a long battle fighting to gain the acceptance of her family after coming out to her parents as a lesbian, Wallner's daughter Anna took her own life. While living the life of a devout Christian, Wallner struggled with both Anna's homosexuality and suicide and began to question her own faith and the words she had been taught all along that fostered a hatred in her toward the gay community and her own daughter.

*Wallner eventually came to a powerful conclusion: God's love did not discriminate and she shouldn't either. It took the tragic loss of her daughter to teach her that profound lesson, but in the years since Mrs. Wallner has become evangelical about inclusion. She now strives to make the case for equality of all people across the country through her advocacy organization TEACH Ministries (To Educate About the Consequences of Homophobia).

*

Members of conservative congregations should realize the consequences of homophobia — both active and passive. Now is the time for local churches to speak up and embrace equality. Conservative Christians often cite the Bible in their defense of exclusionary, homophobic attitudes toward gay men and women, but the Bible also states that "God is love." Like Mary Lou Wallner, we would all do better to recognize the nature of God in others.

This graphic, this time an ode to Maggie Gallagher, prepared by Mike Tidmus is worth a thousand words. HT to Pam Spaulding. I cannot help but wonder what emotional issues drive Gallagher's extreme homophobia. There are so many better ways money used to dehumanize gays could be spent healing the sick and feeding the hungry.

Come August of this year, a vote will be before the Church Wide Meeting of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") as to whether or not gay pastors in committed same-sex relationships should be permitted as rostered clergy. There are definitely reactionary elements within the ELCA that are as anti-gay as some of the professional Christians and as self-righteous and sanctimonious as the Pharisees of the Bible. Fortunately, their cause to block gay clergy suffered at least a temporary blow when a leadership board of rejected a proposal to require a two-thirds vote on the question of allowing gay pastors. Now, approval of the measure - which would permit gay clergy in the church, but leave it up to individual synods and congregations whether to appoint gay pastors - will require only a simple majority vote. Something that may well be achievable. Meanwhile, however, some parishes are forging ahead without waiting for the larger Church to catch up with the social changes that have swept through society. One such parish is Calvary Lutheran in Minnesota. Here are some highlights on that parish's actions from Yahoo News:

*

Brad Froslee was installed as pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church at a special Sunday service attended by dozens of his fellow pastors, as well as Froslee's proud parents and grandmother, all devoted lifelong Lutherans.

*

But the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America officially lists Calvary's ministry as vacant. That's because, sitting with Froslee's family at his installation ceremony in February, was his male partner of 5 1/2 years — living proof that Froslee has flouted the ELCA's prohibition on non-celibate gay pastors.

*

Froslee and the church and synod leaders are operating on what church council member Brian Aust called "the margins of the ELCA." It's an arrangement that could be formalized this August, when leaders of the ELCA — the nation's largest Lutheran denomination with 4.7 million members — meet for their biannual convention in Minneapolis.

*

But the approach envisioned by the task force is already in practice at Calvary Lutheran, a modest 70-year-old brown brick church in a racially diverse neighborhood four miles south of downtown Minneapolis. The 120-member congregation is a mix of young families and single people, middle-aged couples and older established members, and is mostly white despite the surrounding neighborhood.

*

Before joining Calvary, Froslee served as pastor at a Presbyterian church in Minnetonka through a pact between the two denominations. He's also been an activist on issues of homosexuality and Christianity, co-founding a summer camp for gay, Christian youth. And even after meeting his partner, he stayed on the ELCA's roster of pastors eligible to serve in Lutheran congregations — which got his name in front of the Calvary committee looking for the new pastor.

*

Aust, an attorney who chaired that committee, said Calvary wasn't looking for trouble. "Our simple motivation was find the best person, gay or straight. It wasn't about labels," he said. The Minneapolis Synod of the ELCA signed off on the arrangement, but lists Calvary's ministry as vacant. "We viewed it as a decision for the congregation to make," said Minneapolis Synod Bishop Craig Johnson.

*

Rev. Peter Strommen, a pastor from Prior Lake, Minn., who led the task force that proposed the policy change, said it's an attempt to officially recognize the lack of consensus across the ELCA.With rapid social change on gay rights even in recent weeks, including the sudden legalization of gay marriage in Vermont and Iowa, he said the Lutheran church must find a way to proceed amid strongly divergent viewpoints.

*

While hardly perfect, I have found the ELCA to be light years ahead of the Roman Catholic Church and recommend that gay Catholics who are tired of being maligned in their parishes or who have ceased going to church to give the ELCA a look. You might be well pleased with what you find.

In all seriousness, a story on the Huffington Post identifies another way in which to confirm that we are currently in the midst of truly bad economic times. It seems that when times get really tough financially even men's underwear sales - which tend to be pretty recession proof - take a hit. Low and behold, it's really bad out there and underwear sales are flat and falling! Come to think of it, I haven't bought any new ones myself, what with the down real estate market and the ex-wife watching every cent I spend until I fully pay her off. I wonder if any of the surveys cited in the story singled out gay men - if so, and sales are significantly down, then we know the bad news is even worse than expected. Here are some highlights from the story:

*

As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan was known for using quirky, proletariat metrics to judge the temperature of the economy. The most famous of these, as recounted by NPR's Robert Krulwich in January 2008, were the sales of men's underwear.

*

"If you look at sales of male underpants it's just pretty much a flat line, it hardly ever changes,"Krulwich recounted after the publishing of Greenspan's book, "The Age Of Turbulence." "But on those few occasions where it dips that means that men are so pinched that they are deciding not to replace underpants. And [Greenspan] said 'that is almost always a prescient, forward impression that here comes trouble.'" Well, here comes trouble.

*

A revised survey by the leading global research company, Mintel, shows relatively large drops in the sales of men's underwear in the United States. . . . . "Men's basic apparel products probably have the least fluctuating sales of all [apparel products]," Matt Hall, a spokesman for Hanesbrands Inc. said in a brief interview. . . . . If you see a dip in the market it is because of the economy.

*

all the garments in the household, the garment that is most private is the male underpant, because nobody sees it except people in the locker room, but who cares," Krulwich told NPR. "Your children need clothes, your wife needs clothes that have to change, your children grow, you need clothes on the outside. But the last purchase that you don't have to make is underpants.... [men wear them until they are in] total tatters."

This post headline might be premature, but one can always hope and dream. The fact that James Dobson, one of the leading hate merchants for the Christianists, apparently is coming to believe that his side in the culture wars has lost will hopefully become the seed for a self-fulfilling prophesy. Dobson has been leader in disseminating anti-gay hate and has worked diligently to maintain the "choice myth" for cynical political and financial reasons. Personally, I view him as also playing a major role in giving Christianity a bad name and causing younger Americans to stampede away from the Republican Party. Dobson has defined evangelical Christians by who they hate which is in fact almost everyone. Here are some highlights from the Telegraph that look at Dobson's whining that the Christianists have lost the battle and the movement's self-inflicted wounds:

*

America's religious Right has conceded that the election of US President Barack Obama has sealed its defeat in the cultural war with permissiveness and secularism. Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle.

*James Dobson, 72, who resigned recently as head of Focus on the Family - one of the largest Christian groups in the country - and once denounced the Harry Potter books as witchcraft, acknowledged the dramatic reverse for the religious Right in a farewell speech to staff. . . . “We tried to defend the unborn child, the dignity of the family, but it was a holding action,” he said. “We are awash in evil and the battle is still to be waged. We are right now in the most discouraging period of that long conflict. Humanly speaking, we can say we have lost all those battles.”

*

[T]he number of states permitting civil partnerships between homosexuals is rising, and the campaign to restore prayer to schools after 40 years - a decision that helped create the Moral Majority - has got nowhere. Though the struggle will go on, the confession of Mr Dobson, who started his ministry from scratch in 1977, came amid growing concern that church attendance in the United States is heading the way of Britain, where no more than ten per cent worship every week.

*

[A] serious rift is emerging among social conservatives in the wake of his [Obama's] election victory. A growing legion of disenchanted grassroots believers does not blame liberal opponents for the decline in faith or the failures of the religious Right. Rather, they hold responsible Republicans - particularly Mr Bush - and groups like Focus on the Family that have worked with the party, for courting Christian voters only to betray promises of pursuing the conservative agenda once in office.

*

Michael Spencer, a writer who lives in a Christian community in Kentucky, said the religious Right had suffered from its identification with Mr Bush, the most unpopular president in living memory, and the extremist rhetoric of some on the religious Right.

*

Mr Spencer forecast a major collapse in evangelical Christianity within ten years. “Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake,” he wrote.

At the very last minute, with no warning, he canceled on Stephanopoulos, on Easter Sunday no less, due to "exhaustion." Hmm... Stephanopoulos didn't sound convinced. Nor am I. It's Easter Sunday. Warren was going to be on ABC's This Week, doing his schtick as "America's Pastor." This was a big opportunity for him, on the biggest Christian day of the year (at least in my church, Easter is bigger than Christmas). And suddenly he cancels.

*

As readers of this blog know all too well, I am no fan of Homophobe, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. I see him a largely a modern day Pharisee and someone Barack Obama ought to avoid. I am likewise no fan of the Washington Times either. But it is great fun watching the Moonie controlled Washington Times do stories basically ripping Warren a new one for his appearance on Larry King where he claimed that he never supported Proposition 8 and likewise claimed not to have anti-gay statements. Even though he did and there is video footage all over the Internet showing Warren saying precisely what he now claims to have never said. Why do people like Warren make such stupid claims? Do they really believe that the rest of us are so stupid that we will believe the lies and not quickly find the evidence to document his lies? I just do not understand the mindset. Meanwhile, Warren has the extreme Christo-fascist unloading on him as well for his "betrayal." It is truly an amusing spectacle. Here are some highlights from the Washington Times:

*

Evangelical leaders say they are bewildered and stunned by the Rev. Rick Warren's apparent turnaround on gay marriage after the famous California pastor said earlier this week that he was not a proponent of California's Proposition 8. Mr. Warren told CNN's Larry King on Monday that he "never once even gave an endorsement" of the proposition, which said marriage in the state could only involve one man and one woman.

*

"I was extremely troubled by the way he appeared to be so anxious to distance himself from the same-sex issue and to make clear he was not an 'activist' and that he'd only addressed the issue in a very minor way," said the Rev. Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said his denial is "absolutely baffling."

*"Whether he supports Proposition 8 now, after the fact, is overshadowed by the bizarre claim that he did not say what the evidence so clearly proves he said."

*

What Mr. Warren said he did do was send out a video to his 22,000-member church explaining his position the week before Proposition 8 went before state voters on Nov. 4. "Now let me say this really clearly: We support Proposition 8," he said on the video, "and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues, I come out very clear."

*

Christianity Today magazine on April 7 pressed Mr. Warren about whether his CNN remarks contradicted the video sent to his congregration. It was a pastor talking to his own people," he replied. "I've never said anything about it since. I don't know how you can take one video newsletter to your own church and turn that into — all of a sudden I'm the poster boy for anti-gay marriage."

*

Still, evangelicals point to a bigger issue brought about by Mr. Warren. "This is a major distraction in this battle for the culture we are experiencing," said Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville and founder of the High Impact Leadership Coalition of 5,000 black and Hispanic evangelical leaders. "I really respect Pastor Warren, but his stance will hurt the evangelical church. He is being politically correct instead of biblically courageous."

*

Funny thing. I thought there was a Commandment against lying and bearing false witness. Oops. I forgot, professional Christians and homophobes have granted themselves an exemption from that one.

The GayOBX

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I have my own law firm - Michael B. Hamar, P.C. - and practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and LLC's; and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

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